Obama clarifies view on Jerusalem

Barack Obama said yesterday that he used "poor phrasing" in a speech supporting Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.

"This was an example where we had some poor phrasing in the speech. And we immediately tried to correct the interpretation that was given," he said in an interview that aired yesterday on CNN.

"The point we were simply making was, is that we don't want barbed wire running through Jerusalem, similar to the way it was prior to the '67 war, that it is possible for us to create a Jerusalem that is cohesive and coherent," Obama said.

Obama's campaign has issued similar clarifications since the candidate's speech to a pro-Israel lobby group after he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination early last month.

In the speech, Obama told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that if elected president in November, he would work for peace with a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Palestinian leaders reacted with anger and dismay. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, for a future capital.

REUTERS

Ex-representative, hip-hop artist to be on Green ticket

The Green Party has chosen Cynthia McKinney, a former Democratic representative, as its presidential candidate. McKinney, 53, will be joined on the ticket by vice presidential candidate Rosa Clemente, a hip-hop artist and activist.

McKinney received 313 out of 532 votes cast at the party's nominating convention in Chicago Saturday, party spokesman Scott McLarty said.

In 2004, the Green Party drew 119,859 votes, or 0.1 percent of the total, finishing in sixth place behind the two major parties and three other third-party tickets.

The party's best performance came in 2000 when Ralph Nader headed the ticket, and won 2.8 million votes, or 2.7 percent.

McKinney served six terms in Congress and lost her 2006 bid for reelection.

She was the first black woman to represent Georgia in the House of Representatives.